Tag Archives: MAC

Beauty products and make up I cannot live without

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Most of my eyeshadows!

We all have them, right? Some swear by a handful of products that keep them beautiful on a daily basis… however, you are *slightly* more exaggerated,  like myself, you probably notice that your staple beauty products cannot fit in one hand, or two… better bring out the sack…

I decided to list my essential make up items as well as my staple beauty products, as I believe they go hand in hand beautifying my everyday!

There is an awful lot more stuff and I have to say, I am quite good using most of the stuff I have

Drum roll…. here is my tried, tested and loved list:

Make up

  • MAC foundation, most of the times Selct FPS 15 in NC37 – I have tried many foundations in my life (trust me, I am a girl who had severe acne when younger), and this is the one I stuck with for quite sometime. Great to apply, it has a medium coverage. I am, at the moment, trying MAC’s Matchmaster, which has slightly better coverage than the Select and I am very happy with it too. I sometimes mix my foundation with moisturiser for everyday use or build up for hard-wearing make up.
  • MAC Mineralize skinfinish natural powder, in medium dark – cannot live without, usually brush on top of my foundation to add colour, but sometimes just on its own it offers you good coverage without being heavy, at all.
  • MAC Sheertone Shimmer blush in Sunbasque – so versatile…. could, in desperate times, double up as a bronzer, it goes with most colours. When I am full make up on, I use it only on the apple of the cheeks, with Mineralize blush in Chic Couple under the cheek bone for extra definition.
  • MAC Mineralize skinfinish bronzer in Gold deposit – not too overpowering in colour, gives you that lovely glow, suitable for the winter and summer, can be built up…. great for a bot of contouring.
  • MAC eye shadow in Carbon –  another super versatile item. An intense matte black, I wear it as for fierce smokey eyes or on a daily basis as eye liner.
  • Mascara usually Maybelline Falsies, but lately been dabbling with YSL – you can check the review here, Soap & Glory and Maybelline One by One.
  • Eye liner – I have and use many different ones. The one I am quite into at the moment is the The Collection 200o Extreme 24 hour felt tip liner in black. I use eye shadow as eyeliner, gel liners from Maybelline and MAC.
  • MAC brow shader duo – a nice little matchbox like packaging with a dark shadow for your eyebrow and a lighter for the brow bone. It has been discontinued, I am lucky I have two and they last forever!
  • MAC pigment in Vanilla – so great, really gives your brow bone that extra, glamourous sheen, lifting your brows up to the sky! Amazing buy, a little pot will last you a long time.
  • Eye shadow – I own a plethora of shades… cannot get enough of eye shadow, could not pick a favourite, as it varies with my mood.
  • Lancôme Color Fever lipstick in Hot Stuff Rouge: a metallic red I think this colour has been discontinued, which is  shame, as it is the best red ever! It is not too bright so suitable for day wear, it has a smooth creamy texture, so it glides when you apply – it is so good, I don’t even have to use a lip liner. I love it!
  • MAC Russian Red lipstick – hot. That’s all.
  • Lipcote lipstick fixer – I swear by this product. After reading reviews that it dries your lips more than fixes the colour, I was a bit unsure about buying it. My lips are quite dry, and this product hasn’t made it any worse. It fixes the colour beautifully, and I never wear a red on a night out without applying this on top. It stays put most of the night and it won’t stain glasses when you drink. Great!
  • A primer. Been using MAC’s Prep+Prime Skin for a few years and recently discovered Murad Hybrids Skin Perfecting primer (dewy finish) which did wonders for my skin – a brilliant primer for acne scarred skin.  I also use Lancôme’s La Base Pro.
  • Eyelid primer – at the moment using e.l.f and happy with it.

Beauty:

  • Face moisturiser – Nivea visage Oil free moisturising fluid is great value for money. I also wear Clinique’s Dramatically Different Moisturizing Lotion, but this Nivea one is a great budget alternative – the texture is pretty much the same, it absorbs quickly, it moisturises well and my skin likes it.
  • Victoria’s Secret hydrating body lotion in Pure Seduction – been wearing it for a good 10 years now and it is the only moisturiser  my body has seen. Love the consistency, the hydration and the smell is to die for. Sadly, not largely available in the UK (soon to be though), so I stock up from duty free, and suffer the occasional “moisturiser depletion anxiety” when I think I will run out before another trip abroad.
  • Victoria’s Secret ultra-moisturizing hand and body cream, also in Pure Seduction- just like above, but I use it as a hand moisturiser.  It is just great, more supple than the body lotion, also good for elbows and knees.
  • St. Tropez Everyday Airbrush fake tan – easy to apply, never had streaks, the tan looks natural – worth noting I do not abuse it!The smell could be better, but could also be much worse, so overall, I like it and rely on it.
  • Lip balm – my lips are quite dry, and I suffer a lot in the winter; you won’t see without Vaseline lip therapy cocoa butter and lately créme bruleé or cherry Carmex.
  • Clarins Cleansing milk and Toning lotion for combination/oily skin – I know I should wear it twice daily, but I usually do it once, before going to bed. The toning lotion is also a good astringent, and I wear it on my eye lids as part of my eye make up prep!
  • Clinique 3 step system – I usually do this in the mornings. At the moment, I am using the soap bar and clarifying lotion 2, for dry combination skin.
  • Eye drops – My eyes are also very dry, in the wonter aggravated by heating and in th summer by hayfever (I know, lucky me, eh?!), so I use itchy eye drops a lot. I’ve been using Optrex Itchy eye drops and it helps a lot. In the winter,  I usually change to a moisturising eye drop, like Optrex Dry or Actimist eye spray (which I find great!)
  • Batiste dry shampoo  – an absolute saviour. When younger, I used to wash my hair every day, because it is quite fine and looks dirty in 24 hours. Not anymore, dry shampoo (and ballerina buns) changed my life.
  • L’Oréal Absolute eye & lip make-up remover – another saviour, been wearing for a long time, cheap and cheerful, does the job brillianty.
  • Kérastase Nutritive Nutri-termique hair mask –  this is a miracle worker, using it once a week for about a year really changed my hair’s condition. Really amazing product.
  • Kérastase Lait Nutri-sculpt leave in smoothing hair foundation – in combination with the hair mask, this also changed my hair – it enabled me to grow it with the best condition my hair has ever been.
  • Nail varnish – lots and lots of it, in a rainbow-like palette!!!
What about you? What are the products you cannot live without?  Have you tried any of my favourites? What did you think?

Eye make-up look challenge – electric blue eyeliner

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One of the eye make up looks that caught my eye in recent fashion weeks was Anna Sui’s winged blue eyeliner, with a pretty dot on the lower lash line.

So this week I decided to re-create my own version on it, but with a half circle on the centre of the lower lash line, similar to the half sequins used at Givenchy SS12, instead of Anna Sui’s smaller full dot slightly off centre.

In my treasure chest that is the Sephora palette I bought a while back, there are six gel eyeliners, including an electric blue one, so I decided that it was perfect to execute this look.

I prepped my eyes with a primer, dusted with a bit of pigment to give it a glow, used clear sticky tape to work as a stencil so my line would be sharp and precise and voilá – I drew from the inner corner with a brush, as if applying normal eyeliner, but extended it more towards the end of my brows to make it more dramatic.

Then, I built on it, giving thickness on the lid. I took some pictures of it thinner and thicker, and I like them both.

Bearing in mind this took me literally five minutes to achieve on each eye, I think this look is a winner – especially because of its versatility; you can use any colour you want, make the flick shorter and also drop the dot on the lower lash line! If no gel eyeliner is at hand, it can also be achieved by wetting eyeshadow then applying with an angled brush, it will though, be harder to achieve a good coverage and durability, depending on the colour and the eyeshadow. Wet pigments would also work a treat.

Products I used:

  • Sephora gel eyeliner in electric blue, from palette
  • MAC pigment in Vanilla
  • MAC brushes 209SE and 208
  • Maybelline brush (comes with the  Lasting Drama gel liner)
  • Maybelline One by one Volume Express mascara
  • E.L.F eyelid primer
  • MAC eyebrow set
  • Clear sticky tape

Rating:

Eye make-up look challenge: white and gold

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This week I tried to re-create this quite minimalist white and gold eyes. They are meant to be a techno-chic kinda look; to me, they look a bit futuristic and frosted. Kept thinking I should be using light blue and silver instead of gold, for a snow queen look!

I am not sure in which occasion I would, if I wore to go out with this eye make up. I quite like the white “line” in the middle,  there is plenty of shimmer, and when you close you eyes, it looks very pretty and quite unusual.

Instead of using gold leaves, I used Kryolan’s Supracolour from the Charles H. Fox shop in Covent Garden, so even though my look was quite close to the one in the book, the finish was much smoother, as Supracolour is a paste-like product.
The lashes were meant to be quite clumped, but I don’t like that look very much,  so I just clumped it a little bit.  This look is, overall, quite easy to achieve.

Products I used:

  • Charles H. Fox Kryolan Supracolour metallic in gold;
  • Eyeshadow from Sephora pallete (white and shimmery light gold)
  • MAC pigment in Vanilla
  • Smashbox Photo Op Under eye brightener;
  • Studio eye pencil in Winter white
  • E.L.F. eyelid primer in Sheer
  • Soap & Glory Thick and Fast mascara
  • MAC brushes 208, 231, 239 and 263
  • MAC eyebrow set (discontinued)

Level of difficulty:

Eye make-up look challenge: purple and green

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click to enlarge

This week I have tried what is described in the book as a “jewelled” look with purple and green. Mine didn’t turn out that jewel-like, maybe I need some extra shimmer eyeshadow (mental note!) to get extra sparkling effect…. Anyway…

I love the contrast between purple and green, always been a big fan of the combination (when I was very young I had a lime green and purple bikini!) so this really appealed to me. I manage to get very close to the result in the book (minus the super shimmer), and it took me less than 10 minutes per eye to achieve! The secret is wetting the eyeshadow, so you get extra bright colour.

A fun eye make-up look, to add a splash of colour to a black number, to compliment a purple or green one or even colour clash! For me, this is quite a versatile look, as I could easily have interchanged colours. Bearing in mind it was very quick, I see as a definite winner!

Products I used:

  • MAC eyeshadow in Expensive Pink
  • Sephora palette eyeshadows in different purple and green shades
  • MAC pigment in Vanilla
  • Smashbox Photo Op Under eye brightener
  • E.L.F. eyelid primer in Sheer
  • Soap & Glory Thick and Fast mascara
  • MAC eye kohl in Smoulder
  • MAC brushes 208, 217, 219, 227, 231, 239 (eyes) and 167SE (face)
  • MAC eyebrow set (discontinued)

Level of difficulty:

Eye make-up look challenge: black and gold

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black and gold eye make up look

click to enlarge

I am very excited to be posting my very first eye make-up look challenge!

After considering my “menu”, I decided to kick off with slightly something different, dare I say, rather dramatic, although quite simple: a gold base with shadowy, geometrical black outline.

I really enjoyed the effect when the eye is closed. Now, I am not sure how much I like the pokey line once my eyes are open (which will be most of the time, right?!). As mentioned on the book, you must have perfectly plucked and groomed eyebrows if you are wearing this look, otherwise it can appear very  messy. I also think it would look great with some false eye lashes!

I really enjoyed doing it, and would maybe consider for some occasions.  I had a little bit of a problem with the line that pokes out, I drew it with the MAC’s 212 brush and shaded with the 231, after a failed attempt; it is quite hard to get the definition needed for the contrast.

Products I used:

Level of difficulty:

So, what did you think of the look? Would you wear it?

Find out what the rating means.

Metallic eyes trend

supracolour metallics - Charles H FoxI am absolutely loving the metallic eye trend for this coming warm season. I had noticed foiled hair and eyes in some shows, but the wearable look really excites me! I came across this picture gallery on Vogue which gives a great round up and plenty of inspiration. What I really like too are the double liners – on the lash line and crease!

I have always been a great fan of metallics, favouring those to mattes whenever possible; even when doing dramatic black smokey eyes and using matte eye shadow, I make sure I apply a metallic MAC paint underneath, not only to fix it, but also to give it a bit of sparkle!

Quite similar to MAC’s Metal-X cream shadows are the Supracolour metallics,  supracolour metallics - Charles H Foxfrom Charles H Fox I bought late last year, in gold, copper and silver, banking on the trend, for only £6. They are creamy and super metal, as eye shadow, with even application and great cover. I would set it with my MAC prep+prime transparent finishing powder. It also looks fab as a liner, but I just don’t recommend wearing it too near the tear duct, as I felt that, due to its consistency, they blocked mine a little bit and it was quite uncomfortable. However, I promise I will wear a totally metallic lid very soon and will post!

MAC make up brush set

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MAC brush set - dani dutraI love it when MAC launches brush sets. Not only because I swear by their brushes and it’s a great chance to replace my oldies, but also because it is a chance of buying them at a great price. However, the best part is that the brushes come in a smaller size, which is very make up bag friendly. Win all around!

With my powder and eye shadow applicator and blender brushes having seen better days, I found the perfect set to replace them all in one go: the Make it Perfect Brush Kit/Special Edition. It consists of five special edition brushes:  167 powder, 168 angled contour for the face and 239 shader, 217 blending, 212 flat definer for the eyes. They are all white and with glittering clear handles, and comes in a see-through snowglobe-inspired bag.

I do have them all, but I was in desperate need to replace my 167, 168, 239 and 217, which are staples in my make up bag – I use them an awful lot, and they lasted me a good 4-5 years! Check this post on more detail on the brushes and how I use them. The 212 I don’t really need, and in fact have one already from another kit which was a gift, so no losers here!

Apart from the fact I cannot live without them, I find the price very attractive at £39.50 with free delivery. If I were to buy all four brushes I really need, it would cost me £87 for the larger size, which doesn’t fit in my make up bag.  That, plus the 212 I really don’t need, so I am getting £103 worth of goods for a bit more than a third of that. MAC also sent me a little sample of their Zoom Lash mascara. I think it’s great!

Now, I know some of you say MAC brushes are overpriced and I can probably replace them by a cheaper, equally good brand but I trust them; for me, that’s priceless!

Although it might be available in stores, sadly this kit in particular has sold out on the site in the UK. The others variations,  the Essentials, which I bought before and has their foundation brush and the Shape & Perfect kits are also gone. But they still have the Mineralize, with great buffers, for the same price!

Product review: New eyeliners head-to-head

Until a couple weeks ago, I had been lining my eyes in three different ways, depending on my mood, time and desired effect: by using eye shadow (MAC Carbon) or gel eyeliner (MAC Fluidline in Blacktrack) and a small angle brush or using an eyeliner (MAC Smoulder eye kohl).

Recently I came across a few products and decided to give them a go – and test which one delivered best results, in terms of ease of application, effect and durability.

Collection 2000 EXTREME 24 HOUR FELT TIP LINER - Dani DutraThe Collection 200o Extreme 24 hour felt tip liner in black really caught my attention – it is unassuming, looks like a normal felt tip and the idea is really good: a pen with which you can draw your eye liner.

Having 24-hour on the label made me a bit nervous – what if I messed up and it was stuck on my face for a whole day? So it took me a couple weeks after buying to try. I was pleasantly surprised with the results; my first application was easy, the pen glides nicely on the eye lid and it is really precise. You can create nice jet black thin lines with it, and a perfect flick.

Other times it was harder, the line wasn’t perfect, but it was easily fixable with a moist cotton bud. After it dries, it really sticks, and removal requires quite a bit of scrubbing! It lasted well, when I returned home after work, it was still present, my eyes looked well lined and it didn’t run, although it was bit faded. I can see it being very useful to fill out the line after applying false eye lashes!

Maybelline Lasting Drama Gel Liner 24hr - Dani DutraThe other product I tried- and loved – is the Maybelline EyeStudio Lasting Drama gel liner, in blackest black. I really like that it comes with a brush, and the combo works really well; the gel is smooth and glides nicely, the little brush is a great size for the make up bag and is hard enough to be good for thin and wider lines, and it really, really lasts. After a whole day at work, including a trip to the gym, the line still looked impeccable! I was very impressed!

ELF Waterproof Eyeliner Pen - Dani DutraThe third product I tried is quite similar to the first one: the Elf waterproof eyeliner pen. I felt that, although the tip was finer, thus enabling you to create extremely fine lines, there didn’t seem to be enough ink coming out, it was quite dry, I had to rub it really hard and go over the line again and again losing precision, and the final result was still faded. I took pictures, but re-touched with the Collection 2000 liner to make it proper. A shame, as the Elf product is only £1.50,was really expecting one of those “amazing finds” moments! I didn’t do an “after” shot, as I had another liner over it.

For the time being, I’ve laid off my old ways and I am alternating between two of the new discoveries. I am divided between the Maybelline and the Collection 2000. The first one has amazing staying power, and the second is so easy to apply it is almost ridiculous! However, the Collection 2000 might just edge the Maybelline (£7.99) one for its price: £2.99, which is unbelievable value for this product!

What about you? What is your favourite eye liner?

My staple make up brushes

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There was a time in my life I used to apply make up with my hands, and use shapeless foam applicators for my eye shadow. I was fifteen and those days are well and truly over.

Discovering make up brushes opened a whole new world of make up for me: they make application even, save product and are the tools that give me precision to create great make up and truly enhance my features. I then became brush-crazy and started slowly building up a collection.

All my brushes are from MAC; after having had bad brushes before, theirs was the first good brush I got that made a difference, so I stuck with them! I have about 17 brushes for face, eye and lip make up, but there are 10 of them I cannot live without and I use on a daily basis:

Face

190 Foundation brush – Really changed my life! Applies evenly, makes a small amount of foundation go a long way!

187 Duo Fibre brush – I love to use it to buff blusher and bronzer, sometimes I use it for foundation too.

129 Powder brush –  I use it for powder application and bronzer – I really love this brush!

168 Large Angled contour brush– I use this one mainly for blusher, applying on the apples of my cheek, but also under the cheekbone, to give contour that makes your face really stand out!

eye and lip

318 Retractable lip brush – I love this brush, I can really see the difference on lipstick applied with a brush, especially if they are red or other dark colour! 

208 Angled brow brush – another one I love, and use it to fill my eyebrows, which have a lovely shape, but are a bit sparse. Its hard bristles really get in there!

231 Small shader brush – Great for shading lines, but also for applying eye shadow as eye liner when a smokey effect is desired!

217 Blending brush – One of my favourites, this brush is made to go in your crease and blend – I love creating smokey eyes with it!!!

263 Small angle brush – Great for liners – super handy for corners!

239 Eye shader brush– I use this everyday, to apply eye shadow evenly on the lid.

Most of them come from brush bags MAC launches every year, mainly around Christmas, others I replaced by the full sized (and full priced!) brush or bought after seeing it being used on me during a make over at MAC. I do prefer the smaller special editions ones, as it is easier to carry them in my make up bag.

I usually clean them with brush cleaner (I’ve been using the MAC one, and I am very happy with it, it lasted a long time!) and warm soapy (or even detergent!) water. A good trick I read about, on my make up bible Make Up: The Ultimate Guide, by Rae Morris, is to use a white plate and rub the brush on it, until you can see the water running clear, so that you know your brush is clean! Good tip!

Some of them have been stained by pigments, others, have seen better days and I am looking forward to buying one of their sets soon to replace the oldies!

What about you? Do you have favourite brushes and brands?

Nails of the week

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Purple metallic nailsVenturing into blue last week was great, but somehow spoiled this week’s choice a little, as I expected to be blown away by every new colour (I know, too high expectations…) and this wasn’t the case this week. Don’t get me wrong, this metallic purple is lovely, but that blue had oomph – and lots of it.

This week I am wearing Purple Rain, another nail polish from Collection 2000’s Lasting Colour line. I found it a bit thin, the first coat was really see through, but the colour really showed on the second coat.  I wore the blue one for eight days last week, and it looked great until the end (I did apply an extra coat six days after my manicure just to give it a refresh), and the overall durability was great, it didn’t lose shine!

Differently from the previous purple I wore, this one is darker and it is not as glittery as the Colorama one I have.  It also has some iridescence about it, a blue undertone that comes up best in sunlight. Apart from the blue-ish undertone, the colour is rather similar to a MAC lipstick I bought recently, Odyssey. Overall good, but it is no blue, or green!

Might have to go back to them soon!